Polish Jewish cemetery desecrated

August 6, 2007 9:00am

A hundred gravestones in the Polish Jewish cemetery of Czestochowa were vandalized, many with anti-Semitic graffiti.

The umbrella group of Polish Jewry was told about the desecration on Sunday after local police in the southern Polish town discovered the vandalism. Town authorities have announced they will clean up the graves.

Swastikas, skinhead symbols and a Star of David in a noose were among the graffiti found on the tombstones. There are 4,500 graves in the cemetery, which dates back to the late 18th century and is one of the biggest Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

Some 40,000 Jews, or one-third of the city’s population, lived in Czestochowa before the Holocaust. About 100 Jews now live there.